Yesterday's radio commericals and related jingles are disposable jetsam. Often rescued from the dumpster and tape eraser, here's where they live to celebrate another day, and give us a peek into the pop culture of the past. All material has been sourced from tapes or vinyl discs (records) used on the air at radio stations or dubs of said tapes, transferred on my Studer reel to reel machine for pristine quality when possible.

Saturday, May 24, 2014

It's been 50 years. 50 Years since Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Player Tim Horton started a Donut Shop in Hamilton, Ontario that now has over 2000 outlets in Canada and parts of the US and is probably as Canadian as Hockey, or hell, probably MORE Canadian as Hockey.

Some history on the company right from their website HERE
I suppose you can compare it to Dunkin Donuts in the US, with how many stores there actually are, but it seems Canadians are far more passionate about "Timmies" as we call it. I saw on a shirt once "Gimmie My Timmies and No One Gets Hurt" or walk around Canada anywhere and someone might say "Double Double" which is a common term in Canada for "double cream double sugar" in your coffee. Don't get me started on every spring when "Rim Rage" begins, related to their yearly 'Roll up the Rim to Win" contest. If you see cups littering the landscape, you can blame it on someone who rolled the rim, and did not win, and threw away the cup in disgust.

Thus we devote this month's jetsam exhibit to Tim Horton's. I only wish we had more material, but spanning 1986 to 2011 with a number of radio jingles and ads is still kinda cool. There's even a full song you could download when they came out with a full jingle. Just check them all out below, In chronological order. Details on the tape box pictures and links below them for the audio.

In 2011, Tim Horton's celebrated the 25th anniversary of their "Roll Up The Rim To Win" Contest. From a Tim's press release: "Created in 1986 as a "thank you" to Tim Hortons guests at 246 restaurants in Canada, the unique contest has grown into a global annual event at more than 3,500 restaurants in Canada, the United States and Afghanistan. The biggest prize in 1986 was a snack pack of Timbits. Since then, Tim Hortons has given away nearly 500 cars and hundreds of millions of coffee and donuts."

Guess what? They did a 25th Anniversary Jingle, and strangely enough, really explains the Canadian tradition every spring to either win a great prizes or "Rim Rage" and get an invitation to buy another cup of coffee.

Finally, also in 2011 (I was bad with dates on this one!) Tim's revealed their new campaign and slogan "It's Time for Tim's" which was a scaled down version of a previous slogan, "You've always got time for Tim Horton's" There have been different versions of the jingle since, but when it came out, you could actually download the full song. It's a catchy bad ear worm to stick in your head. Well, you decide.

It's a LOT for this month, but it is Timmie's 50th. Did I mention I actually collect the paper cups you get coffee in? They change their designs (especially yearly for Christmas) on a regular basis as they advertise various things on their cups and are always changing them. Kinda fun and a cheap hobby. Thank god my wife puts up with me. :)